Module Details

SC920-7-AU-CO: Colonialism, Cultural Diversity And Human Rights

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Year: 2016/17
Department: Sociology
Essex credit: 20
ECTS credit: 10
Available to Study Abroad / Exchange Students: Yes
Full Year Module Available to Study Abroad / Exchange Students for a Single Term: No
Outside Option: No

Module Description

This interdisciplinary module will survey a range of social processes that have a bearing on the contemporary human rights debates around the world. It begins from the premise that what we today call human rights violations are heavily bound up with colonialism and cultural domination. In the 10 weeks, we will examine how mandates for free markets, industrialism and state sovereignty have undermined local uniqueness and cultural distinctiveness. We will tackle these questions by looking at thinkers such as Aime Cesaire, Frantz Fanon, Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben and Michael Taussig. These will be combined with discussions of specific international situations such as the Algerian anticolonial revolution, the creation of refugees, walls and borders in Europe and Palestine, terror and resource extraction in South America, the race for remaining fossil fuels in the Far North of Canada, the forced removal of Aboriginal children in Australia, and the continuing 'War on Terror.'

As well as seminars, we will also have separate programme of weekly film screenings including feature films and documentaries.

As well as seminars, we will also have separate programme of film screenings of significant feature films and documentaries such as 'The Battle of Algiers,' on the Algerian uprising against French colonialism, 'Burden of Dreams', the account of film director, Werner Herzog's Amazonian adventure, 'Rabbit Proof Fence' on the Australian Aborigine stolen generations, 'Route 181' on the Israel-Palestine border, and Standard Operating Procedure' on the war on terror. These will be used to add visual and aesthetic dimensions to our understandings of contemporary conflicts over rights around the world.

Learning and Teaching Methods

Assessment

100 per cent Coursework Mark

Other information

Film screenings include:
'Battle of Algiers' about the Algerian resistance
'Concerning Violence' about Frantz Fanon and the struggle in Africa for declonization
'Burden of Dreams' the account of film director, Werner Herzog's Amazonian adventure
'Hannah' about the life of Hannah Arendt and her coverage of the Adolf Eichmann trial
'Route 181' a road documentary on the Israel Palestine 'green line
'Rabbit Proof Fence' on the Australian Aborigine stolen generations
'Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner' on looking at the world as Inuit
'Standard Operating Procedure' on the atrocities at Abu Ghraib prison

Bibliography

Aime Cesaire, (1955), Discourse on Colonialism

Frantz Fanon, (1965) , A Dying Colonialism

Marnia Lazreg, (2007), Torture and the Twilight of Empire: From Algiers to Baghdad

Michael Taussig,(1987), Shamanism, Colonialism and the Wild Man: A Study in Terror and Healing,